Pass through the stone gates at the end of Old Cemetery Lane, and enter the oldest section of Norwichtown’s Old Burying Ground. Here you will find the final resting places of the men and women who built and first lived in Norwichtown’s nearby Colonial homes in the 1600s and 1700s. Legends, mysteries, and even hauntings abound in this tranquil, yet bewitching, place.

The Faith Trumbull (Norwich, Conn.) chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution each year honors the 20 French soldiers who served under General Rochambeau, who became ill and died at Norwich in 1778, while fighting on behalf of America in the Revolutionary War. They were interred in the Old Burying Ground.

This tour is adapted from the brochure “A Walking Tour of Old Norwichtown Burial Ground,” produced by the Norwich Tourism Office in 1997. Local historian David Oat researched and wrote the descriptive text for each of the headstones featured in the tour, as well as the overviews of the Old Burying Ground and New England’s Colonial Burial Grounds. Additional research and texts, all photographs, podcasts and website were produced by John-Manuel Andriote in May 2012.